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Interview with The Mogg
(259 Posts)I thought some peeps might like to get their teeth into this article from today's Sunday Times.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, an English Trump but better at Latin
Chris Lange-KuettnerAugust 13 2017, 12:01am,
As Moggmentum surges, the historian Tim Newark grills his fogeyish back-bench Tory friend about his leadership plans over plum crumble
Jacob Rees-Mogg came round for lunch with us last week in Bath, a suitable location for this politician dubbed “MP for the 18th century”. As it was the summer recess I thought he might have loosened his top button a little but no: he arrived impeccably dressed in a double-breasted suit with a shirt and tie. Rees-Mogg says he has “never worn a pair of jeans”.
Charming and polite throughout lunch, he praised the plum crumble my wife made for him, knowing his delight in traditional British food.
Rees-Mogg is exactly as you would imagine him to be. And these days authenticity is the major currency of any politician with eyes on high office. Only recently taking to Twitter with a Latin maxim, he gets more “likes” and “shares” for his tweets than any cabinet member, including the prime minister.
Fiercely loyal to Theresa May so long as she remains Conservative Party leader, he strikes a growing number of Tory backbenchers as just too good to be left on the back benches. Here is a man with a sharp intellect who serves on the Treasury select committee and gave Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, a hard time about his anti-Brexit advice before the referendum.
To his fans Rees-Mogg is straight talking, has disarming humour, is good on television, unflinchingly patriotic and a successful businessman from a privileged background who nevertheless understands the concerns of ordinary men and women. Like an English version of Donald Trump but with a better grasp of Latin. Does he see any similarity?
Rees-Mogg answers carefully and says that he fully understands the message of the populist revolution in 2016 that rocked the ruling classes on both sides of the Atlantic. “The governing elite in both the US and the UK,” he said, “had come to the conclusion that the only reason that people wouldn’t do what they said is because they didn’t understand.
“You see this in the shockingly condescending views expressed by some Remoaners who think that the people that voted for Brexit were all stupid. It’s a very odd way of looking at things if you believe in democracy.”
Rees-Mogg said serving the grassroots lies at the heart of his political philosophy: “As a constituency MP I am always seeking to represent the people remote from the centres of power, rather than the interests of lobby groups.”
Asked why he cares so much about Brexit, he said it is “all about democracy. Can the British people have the government that they want?
“The problem with the European Union is we can be outvoted by a qualified majority vote and therefore laws can be passed that the British people have not only not consented to but have opposed.”
Was he upset that May laughed at the suggestion of him being in the cabinet? If he is he does not show it, rebuffing the question with good humour: “I’m a back-bench MP. I’m supporting Theresa May. My ambition is to be re-elected in North East Somerset. It would be unrealistic of me to have further ambitions.”
His recent interventions suggest otherwise. Rees-Mogg put the chancellor in his place over collective cabinet responsibility and slapped down a proposal from James Chapman, a former aide to David Davis and George Osborne, for a new “Democrats” anti-Brexit party.
With his experience in business and the City, is Rees-Mogg well placed to take on the role of chancellor in due course — like a Boris with financial brains? He sidestepped the question: “I don’t think it’s going to be offered.”
Certainly, some part of the Conservative grassroots is all agog with the thought of him standing as leader when the time is right. “Cometh the hour, cometh the Mogg” is a recurring line. But others — including the former Conservative MP Matthew Parris — are not so keen.
In his Times column yesterday Parris described Rees-Mogg’s views on moral, social, sexual and reproductive issues as “brute moral conservative” and warned that electing him as leader would kill off the “broad-church Conservative Party”.
Does Rees-Mogg even have the hunger for high political office? Recently celebrating the birth of his sixth child, naturally named Sixtus, he rejoices in his large family, lives in a mansion dating back to 1600 deep in the Somerset countryside and has amassed a fortune through his Somerset Capital Management business.
Having entered the Commons only in 2010, Rees-Mogg claims repeatedly that he has already attained his highest ambition of being MP for North East Somerset.
“The local party is part of who I am and what I am,” he insists. But surely he wants to ride the Moggmentum into a cabinet post?
“I’m very interested in political ideas, developing Conservative thinking, and I’m very keen that we should have a positive message for Conservatism,” he said.
“Our last manifesto was much too defensive and much too managerial. That was why we went from having such a strong lead in the polls to having a very marginal election victory . . . The campaign did not succeed. You can have a role in that without holding great office.”
Will he never throw his hat into the ring of a future leadership election?
“I think if I threw my hat in the ring, my hat would be thrown back at me pretty quickly,” he said.
Nor will he be drawn on who should be the next party leader. “There are so many people that would be capable of doing it,” he said, “and who it ends up being, as with Mrs May getting it, is a matter of luck as anything.”
Surely he wants a Brexiteer? “By the time Mrs May finally decides to become a countess and go to the House of Lords,” he reassures me, “we’ll have long since left the European Union.”
Rees-Mogg, 48, was born in Hammersmith, west London. His father was The Times editor William Rees-Mogg. The family has long ties with Somerset thanks to owning local coalmines.
Educated at Eton, he read history at Trinity College, Oxford but regrets not studying classics: “All the really clever people do that and a 2:1 in classics is worth a first in PPE.”
He did not follow his father into journalism: “My father was much better at it than I was ever going to be so I thought I could only ever fail by comparison.”
Instead he chose a career in the City, working in emerging markets for Lloyd George Management, which included a stint in Hong Kong before setting up his own investment business in 2007.
His leisure time is dominated by his large family: “It’s the most important thing. I’ve got six lovely, delightful children. I’m very lucky. I have a wonderful wife who looks after us all.”
They are working their way through the James Bond films: “We’re on Octopussy at the moment, had Live and Let Die a couple of nights ago.
“This might not be the most fashionable view — but then I’m not known for my fashion — but I think the late Sir Roger Moore is unquestionably the best James Bond.”
It seems an apt choice for Rees-Mogg. Not the action-packed aggression of Daniel Craig but the self-deprecating, humorous Bond — who ended up having the longest 007 career.
Tim Newark is a historian and the author of Protest Vote: How Mainstream Parties Lost the Plot (Gibson Square, £8.99)
Rees-Mogg is...
DOLGACHOV/GETTY
...AGAINST
● Gay marriage
● Raising welfare benefits
● Smoking ban in private vehicles where a child is present
● Euthanasia
● A 2016 investigation into the Iraq War
PA
...BUT FOR
● Trident, bedroom tax and academies
● Stricter asylum systems and a stronger enforcement of immigration rules
● Mass retention of data from communications and surveillance
Does that count as caring for his neice?
I saw that one of Mogg's nieces put herself up for election in Bristol in June. She gave her address as living in the constituency when really she was living in one of her uncle's grace and favour cottages on his estate, which is outside the constituency.
That was only temporary, as the address she was voting from was in London!
She said she would move there if elected.
She probably meant the ones who were struggling to keep their country mansions along with their town houses [and multiple rental properties...].
May said she cared for the JAMs and would look after them. They fell for that, didn't they?
...and Boris Johnson. Seems the way to get on in politics these days is to be amusing on HIGNFY.
I was recently told by a friend, who is herself generally left of centre, that she liked JR-M, not because of his politics, which she seemed to know very little about, but because he was a "character" - unlike most boring politicians.
That is the danger. He is a brilliant self-publicist, and the media, especially the BBC, laps him up and indulges him. It worked for Farage.
I very much doubt RM will be PM, although when was being caring a quality that was considered when parties choose a Leader? Never, because other qualities are needed more, for that position.
"The far left here do so hate Rees-Mogg"
AB anyone who is really left of centre would dislike Rees Moggs views. He is closer to Trump and the KKK than anyone I have come across in this country.
You have no left of centre values I recognise AB.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jacob-rees-mogg-conservative-mp-north-east-somerset-capital-management-investment-firm-belgravia-a7902951.html
This is the man who thinks zero hours contracts are a good thing, yet is paid over £20,000 a month for 35 hours "work".
He also doesn't want benefits to rise in line with inflation.
How can he possibly be considered suitable to be the leader of the party which he says should work from the bottom up, not the top down?
So caring.
Yes I did read your apology whitewave, and what I expected from you , you do have the grace to apologise ?
As you wish annie. You have no doubt that I have indicated that I am sorry if pogs is still upset after so many months.
I will now drop the subject and trust that you will do the same as salt and wounds come to mind.
Not in a forum with so many members whitewave , you are saying we will discuss when WE choose to , yes? That is arrogant sorry
It was 2.15 in the morning, by which time about half a dozen sometimes more had been chatting for 4 hours without a discordant note between us and happy to continue so doing. We simply didn't want to start a debate at such an ungodly hour. I think it is quite a reasonable thing to expect.
Oh dear this happened absolutely months ago!!
Wanting to debate or not it's offensive to tell anyone to go chat else where . I have been told to get off a thread , why are the majority of far left posters so arrogant?
My thoughts on HS2 is that if it is desperately needed then do it, but the jury seems to be divided about the level of need.
You were still up at 2.15 in th morning 'merrily' chatting amongst yourselves? Goodness...
Sounds like both the right and the left in politics are not too bothered about ancient woodland then.
That's an excuse?!! 
pogs wow! You have a long memory,
If I remember correctly that was the night of the election, in which we had all been chatting merrily amongst ourselves for hours. Your disruptive post was not welcome at 2.15 in the morning and none of us wanted to be bothered with a debate. That was my reaction, but I wouldn't call it personal although you seem to think it was, in which case I m happy to say I am sorry if it upset you as you clearly still remember it so I guess it must have done.
That article on HS2 was March 2016, so it is talking about summer 2015.
The final route wasn't known about until this year.
However, it was known that Rees-Mogg wanted to sell off the ancient forests run by the Forestry Commission. Therefore he will not be concerned about the number of ancient woodlands that HS2 goes through.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/14/jacob-rees-mogg-the-brexit-loving-rights-answer-to-corbyn
Voting for him could split the party. That's good.
The far left here do so hate Rees-Mogg , even condemned him for having six children but mention of Corbyn and his liking for wives and brings out accusations of hating the man
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